7 CMO Mistakes That Will Get Them Fired This Year and What CEOs Wish Their CMOs Knew
As a CMO, it's critical to understand the key priorities and concerns of your CEO in order to drive business growth and meet organizational goals. However, many CMOs fall short in this area, putting their jobs at risk.
In this comprehensive blog post, we will uncover the top 7 mistakes CMOs make that could get them fired this year. We will also reveal exactly what CEOs wish their CMOs knew when it comes to marketing leadership. Let's dive in!
CEOs' Top Priorities in 2023
Before covering the CMO mistakes, it's helpful to understand what is top-of-mind for CEOs right now. According to Gartner research, the top priorities and growth drivers for CEOs in 2023 are:
But as you can see from this chart, Cost Management, Environmental Sustainability, and Efficiency and Productivity are heavily rising.
"Inflationary prices and economic uncertainty are driving CEOs to maintain profitability through cost optimization and improved efficiency this year..." - Chris d'Eon
Environmental sustainability also remains a key focus area. While customer centricity and growth are always imperative, these other business imperatives are taking priority given the current climate.
Mistake #1: Not Focusing on Pricing Strategies
Given the CEO's strong emphasis on cost management and profitability, the number one mistake a CMO could make this year is not focusing enough on pricing strategy. As part of the marketing mix, pricing significantly impacts profits.
Some examples of common pricing strategies include:
"CEOs look to CMOs for guidance on what prices should be," explained d'Eon. "There are many effective pricing strategies, like cost plus, penetrative, psychological, and more. Optimizing your pricing approach is key."
Conduct market research, A/B testing, analysis with the CFO, and choose the right strategy for your business. Pricing has a major impact and cannot be overlooked.
Mistake #2: Not Using Modern Best Practices
Another fatal flaw is not leveraging modern best practices for growth. CEOs want to see marketing driving measurable year-over-year growth through strategic implementation of today's most effective tactics and channels.
Some examples include:
"What worked in 2019 may not work now," d'Eon emphasized. "Follow trends, survey fellow modern CMOs, and use AI to determine and deploy the latest high-performing strategies."
Stay on top of changing consumer behaviors and preferences to accelerate growth.
Mistake #3: Forgetting Traditional Best Practices
While modern tactics bring innovation, traditional practices still deliver results and cannot be ignored. Don't just chase "shiny objects" without balancing and optimizing your traditional campaigns too.
"Email marketing, direct mail, telemarketing... these veteran tactics often drive higher profitability due to lower costs and better conversion compared to new channels," Palouda explained. "Blend both traditional and modern based on testing."
Case in point - don't believe the hype that "email is dead." For most companies, email remains a top revenue channel. Traditional practices provide a solid foundation.
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Mistake #4: Not Adopting AI
If you're still resisting AI adoption, you're way behind the curve and limiting your results and efficiency. Over 50% of marketers now use AI daily.
AI can help rapidly:
"AI brings tremendous speed, personalization and conversion gains," said Palouda. "Text and graphic generation, predictive lead scoring, funnel analysis, chatbots...the applications abound."
Don't leave this game-changing technology sitting on the sidelines. Get AI working for your marketing.
Mistake #5: Confusing Cashflow, Revenue & Profit
Next, too many CMOs fail to understand cashflow - a vital metric that CEOs are maniacally focused on right now. 82% of businesses experience or fail because of cash flow problems, according to Business Insider.
"With economic uncertainty ahead, CEOs need to ensure sufficient near-term cashflow to fund operations," said d'Eon. "Work closely with the CFO to forecast expenditures and align marketing tactics to accelerate cash generation from sales."
While long-term metrics like Customer Lifetime Value remain relevant, CEOs want to see positive, fast cashflow contribution from marketing. Tight collaboration with the CFO is a must.
Mistake #6: Not Building a Flexible Marketing Team
Additionally, retaining an inflexible marketing team that can't readily scale up or down is an issue in the current climate. CEOs want CMOs implementing an agile organizational model.
"Having a solid bench of on-demand marketing experts available solves hiring/firing headaches while enabling quick capacity adding/reducing to meet needs," said d'Eon.
Consider leveraging an impact-driven fractional CMO agency (like No Typical Moments ??) to provide this flexible resource model that drives growth without heavy fixed costs. This also tackles the CEO's workforce, cost and productivity priorities discussed earlier.
Mistake #7: Relying on One Marketing Channel
Finally, a CMO's worst nightmare is having all your eggs in one basket. If you solely rely on one platform like Facebook and Instagram and their algorithms suddenly change overnight (which does happen!), your sales could instantly evaporate.
"Always test new channels and traffic sources, ensuring diversity to reduce risk," advised Palouda. "Set aside a test budget for prospecting new channels monthly."
Optimally, 20% of your budget should focus on testing and expanding new channels and audiences to mitigate channel risk and find new pockets of value.
Additional CMO Pitfalls
While the above covers the biggest CMO mistakes, here are a few other problematic patterns to avoid:
As marketing leaders, we must stay vigilant to prevent these missteps!
Avoid these pitfalls, calibrate with CEO priorities, leverage flexible growth experts, and adopt an agile, test-and-learn approach fueled by market intelligence. By following these guidelines, CMOs can drive impact, save their jobs, and help enable leadership vision. Onward!
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AI Consultant | Brand Safety & Digital Safety Advisor | FutureFixer | Data is DNA?? featured at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival
12 个月Wow! This is robust!!